Even before the coronavirus pandemic upended all forecasts for global trade and energy demand, analysts had doubted that China would be able to fulfill its pledge in the phase-one trade deal with the United States to buy as much as US$26 billion worth of American energy products this year. COVID-19 and the resulting plunge in oil and natural gas demand and prices have made China’s target to buy U.S. energy products even more unachievable–perhaps nearly impossible to achieve–according to estimates for the first five months of 2020. Today’s dramatically lower oil prices compared to January – when the phase-one trade deal was reached – mean that even if China were to significantly boost its import volumes of American oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG), coal, and refined petroleum products such as propane, their value in U.S. dollars would still be lower than expected at the start of the year. Analysts […]